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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Guide: Skyrim Crafting - How-To, Types, and Recipes

With the amount of exploration, quests, and crafting that is available in Skyrim it feels like an MMO - without the MM part. You can study Alchemy, Enchanting, Smithing, Cooking, Mining, Smelting, Tanning, Wood Chopping, and probably a few I forgot to mention.

Point is that there are a ton of activities - and I love me some activities.

Below you will find an explanation on each craft, along with their respective recipes. No more wasting your time Alchemist! We have the answers here!

Alchemy

Step 1: Foraging for Ingredients
There are three types of ingredients to be found. There are those that are grown, those that are alive, and those that are taken from an enemy’s corpse. When you collect an ingredient they are stored in your “Ingredients” tab in your inventory

Step 2: Learn the effects of your ingredients
Under each of your ingredients you will notice there are four effects. In the beginning these are all listed as “unknown” – it’s your job to figure out what they do. How do you do this? Eat it stupid! Yep, that’s right. Put it in your mouth and see what happens. Sometimes you will have health benefits, other times you will notice your stamina lowers.

If you don’t feel like eating it to figure it out, you can attempt to craft a potion from said ingredient. You need to find an alchemy table and start experimenting. While this isn’t as simple and quick as eating the ingredient, it does yield potion results and won’t harm your body.

Step 3: Crafting PotionsYou need to find an Alchemy Lab. These are found in nearly every major city, so find one that you like and get used to using it. If you have a little bit of money, you should simply buy your own house. This gives you access to your own Alchemy Lab!

Once at the Alchemy Lab, select two different ingredients and mix them. If you are one of those crazy, rebel types, you can even mix more than two ingredients at once. Crazy, right?! Your result will be shown immediately, leaving with you with a multitude of different recipes. Sometimes they work out great, sometimes they don’t. That’s the beauty of Alchemy – it’s all one big experiment.

As you increase your Alchemy skill, your potions will last longer and be stronger. A normal health potion may give you +100 due to your skill level. Or a stamina potion may last +60 seconds because of it.

Novice Recipes

Health Potions

Potion Effect

1st Ingredient

2nd Ingredient

Restore Health

Blue Mountain Flower

Butterfly Wing

Fortify Health

Giant’s Toe

Hanging Moss

Resistance Potions

Resist Fire

Fly Amanita

Snowberries

Resist Frost

Snowberries

Thistle Branch

Resist Shock

Glowdust

Snowberries

Stamina Potions

Restore Stamina

Pine Thrush Egg

Purple Mountain Flower

Fortify Stamina

Garlic

Lavender

Regenerate Stanima

Bee

Mora Tapinella

Utility Potions

Invisibility

Chaurus Eggs

Nirnroot

Waterbreathing

Chicken’s Egg

Nordic Barnacle

Magicka Potions

Restore Magicka

Creep Cluster

Red Mountain Flower

Fortify Magicka

Red Mountain Flower

Tundra Cotton

Regenerate Magicka

Garlic

Salt Pile

Poisons

Damage health (Weak)

Falmer Ear

Imp Stool

Damage health (Strong)

Falmer Ear

River Betty

Damage Magicka

Butterfly Wing

Hanging Moss

Paralysis

Canis Root

Imp Stool

The list below is not complete. It's everything I have found so far (as of 11/13/2011). Please, if you have found any other effects or ingredients, let us know in the comments section below. You can also email me at anthonyaccinelli@strengthgamer.com. Thanks!

The list above is not complete. It's everything I have found so far (as of 11/13/2011). Please, if you have found any other effects or ingredients, let us know in the comments section below. You can also email me at anthonyaccinelli@strengthgamer.com. Thanks!

Enchanting

Enchanting involves placing magical enchantments on an item. These enchantments are powered with soul energy. Problem is, this soul energy is taken at the expense of other items. It’s up to you to decide if you are willing to break down these items in hopes of making something stronger.

Step 1: Disenchant an ItemIn order to enchant an item you’re going to need to disenchant one first. This will destroy the original item and teach you the base enchantment of it. For example, if you have a weapon with with fortify health ability, and you disenchant it, you will learn the base enchantment of “Fortify Health”. Make sense? Good – because it’s important.

Step 2: Find some Soul GemsYou are going to need to find and use soul gems if you want to enchant an item. You can find them throughout the world, buy them from merchants (which is expensive so not recommended), or steal them – my favorite way.

Great places to find soul gems are Warlock Dens, Nordic Ruins, and Dwarven Cities. I have found a ton of them from Court Wizards and College Mages as well.

NOTE: thanks to reader “youknowthatsright” for pointing out that the College of Winterhold has a ton of soul gems just laying around for the taking.

Step 3: Fill Soul Gems with… SoulsYou’re going to need one of two things to capture the soul of an enemy. One of them is the “Soul Trap Spell”. If you cast this on a creature and kill it before the spell wears off you will catch it’s soul. You can purchase this spell in Whiterun, from the Court Wizard Farengar.

You can also use a “Soul Trap Enchantment” that you find on some weapons. Simply kill an enemy with such a weapon and the soul will automatically fill a soul gem.

Keep in mind that only creatures will fill soul gems, not humans.

Step 4: Find an Unenchanted ItemYou’re going to need something unenchanted if you’re going to enchant it. That’s just common knowledge. So you’re either going to have to buy them from a merchant, or find them while exploring. Oh, there’s also that whole Smithing thing, which we will get to later. But seriously, Smithing is going to be the most profitable way to go about this whole enchanting thing.

Step 5: Enchant a WeaponYou’re going to need to find an Arcane Enchanter now that you have completed the four previous steps. You have completed them… right? Once here, select the weapon/armor you want to enchant and the soul gem you wish to use. It’s important to choose the correct soul gem for your purpose. The stronger the soul gem, the stronger the effect the enchant will have. Choose wisely young grasshopper.

Every enchanted weapon is going to carry a “charge”. This is the amount of times the weapon can be used before the enchant wears off. After this, it is simply a normal weapon – unless you were to enchant it again with another soul gem.

A simple equation to this is as follows: Charge Capacity/Enchantment Cost = Charges.

Your charge capacity is determined by the soul gem that you used during the enchantment process. Once again, the soul gem strength is a direct result of the strength of the soul you used, which is determined by the level of the creature that you stole the soul from.

One of the greatest aspects of Enchanting is that the stats will stack. So a light armor increase of +20% on both your cuirass and your greaves will equate to +40% total. Shwing!